Debate Quotes - Page 28

• Men of many words sometimes argue for the sake of talking; men of ready tongues frequently dispute for the sake of victory; men in public life often debate for the sake of opposing the ruling party, or from any other motive than the love of truth.

  George Crabbe

  Party, Men, Talking

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• Tell a thousand people to draft a letter, let them debate every phrase, and see how long it takes and what you get.

  Catherine the Great

  Long, People, Phrases

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• Why did the consensus of Christian churches not only accept these astonishing views but establish them as the only true form of Christian doctrine? . . . these religious debates - questions of the nature of God, or of Christ - simultaneously bear social and political implications that are crucial to the development of Christianity as an institutional religion. In simplest terms, ideas which bear implications contrary to that development come to be labeled as 'heresy'; ideas which implicitly support it become 'orthodox.'

  Elaine Pagels

  Christian, Religious, Views

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• It's so much easier to debate people when you can pretend that they hold moronic position that they don't actually believe.

  Glenn Greenwald

  Believe, Nsa, People

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• I will not let the Patriot Act, the most unpatriotic of acts, go unchallenged. At the very least, we should debate. We should debate whether or not we are going to relinquish our rights, or whether or not we are going to have a full and able debate over whether or not we can live within the Constitution, or whether or not we have to go around the Constitution.

  Rand Paul

  Rights, Nsa, Able

  "Rand Paul's NSA Filibuster: His Notable Quotes" by Andrew Desiderio, www.realclearpolitics.com. May 21, 2015.

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• One of the things we're going to have to discuss and debate is how are we striking this balance between the need to keep the American people safe and our concerns about privacy. Because there are some trade-offs involved. I welcome this debate, and I think it's healthy for our democracy.

  Barack Obama

  Thinking, Nsa, People

  "Around The World" with Michael Holmes, www.cnn.com. June 7, 2013.

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• Someone responding to the story said 'real spies do not speak like that'. Well, I am a spy and that is how they talk. Whenever we had a debate in the office on how to handle crimes, they do not defend due process - they defend decisive action. They say it is better to kick someone out of a plane than let these people have a day in court. It is an authoritarian mindset in general.

  Edward Snowden

  Real, Nsa, People

  "Edward Snowden, NSA files source: 'If they want to get you, in time they will'". Interview with Glenn Greenwald and Ewen MacAskill, www.theguardian.com. June 10, 2013.

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• Wit has its place in debate; in controversy it is a legitimate weapon, offensive and defensive.

  Theodore Parker

  Weapons, Offensive, Wit

  Theodore Parker (1871). “Speeches, Addresses, and Occasional Sermons”, p.299

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• The perennial architectural debate has always been, and will continue to be, about art versus use, visions versus pragmatism, aesthetics versus social responsibility. In the end, these unavoidable conflicts provide architecture's essential and productive tensions; the tragedy is that so little of it rises above the level imposed by compromise, and that this is the only work most of us see and know.

  Ada Louise Huxtable

  Art, Responsibility, Vision

  Ada Louise Huxtable (2010). “On Architecture: Collected Reflections on a Century of Change”, p.34, Bloomsbury Publishing USA

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• The argument culture urges us to approach the world - and the people in it - in an adversarial frame of mind. It rests on the assumption that opposition is the best way to get anything done: The best way to discuss an idea is to set up a debate; the best way to cover news is to find spokespeople who express the most extreme, polarized views and present them as 'both sides'; the best way to settle disputes is litigation that pits one party against the other; the best way to begin an essay is to attack someone; and the best way to show you're really thinking is to criticize.

  Deborah Tannen

  Party, Thinking, Ideas

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• we have not been impressed with any attribute of the Senate other than its appearance and manners. We have heard the best speakers: they all fire off speeches which deal with the entire subject in general terms and which do not attempt to debate, to answer opponents' arguments or offer new points for discussion. And the speeches are constantly degenerating into empty rhetoric; they abound in quotations from well-known authors or from their own former speeches.

  Beatrice Webb

  Fire, Answers, Speech

  Beatrice Potter Webb (1963). “American diary, 1898”

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• A fool is he that comes to preach or prate,
  When men with swords their right and wrong debate.
  [It., Chi conta i colpi e la dovuta offesa,
  Mentr' arde la tenzon, misura e pesa?]

  Torquato Tasso

  Men, Fool, Folly

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• The word 'tolerance' once meant we all have the right to argue rationally for our deepest convictions in the public arena. Now it means those convictions are not even subject to rational debate.

  Nancy Pearcey

  Mean, Tolerance, Arena

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• Some feminist critics debate whether we take our meaning and sense of self from language and in that process become phallocentric ourselves, or if there is a use of language that is, or can be, feminine. Some, like myself, think that language is itself neither male nor female; it is creatively expansive enough to be of use to those who have the wit and art to wrest from it their own significance. Even the dread patriarchs have not found a way to 'own' language any more than they have found a way to 'own' earth (though many seem to believe that both are possible).

  Paula Gunn Allen

  Art, Believe, Thinking

  Paula Gunn Allen (1998). “Off the Reservation: Reflections on Boundary-busting Border-crossing Loose Canons”, Boston, Mass. : Beacon Press

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• Television has accustomed us to brief, intimate, telegraphic, visual, narrative messages. Candidates are learning to act, speak, and think in television's terms. In the process they are transforming speeches, debates, and their appearances in news into ads.

  Kathleen Hall Jamieson

  Thinking, News, Television

  Kathleen Hall Jamieson (1993). “Dirty Politics: Deception, Distraction, and Democracy”, p.206, Oxford University Press on Demand

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• Sandy was particularly destructive because it was prevented from moving back out to sea by a "blocking pattern" associated with the jet stream. There's debate about this, but one recent study suggested that melting sea ice in the Arctic may lead to such blocking.

  Nicholas D. Kristof

  Block, Moving, Ice

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• In my downtime, for fun, I engage in philosophical internet debates. Yeah, I'm that guy.

  Scott Clifton

  Fun, Philosophical, Guy

  "60 Seconds With Scott Clifton - One Life To Live", February 11, 2010.

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• Time was when medicine could do very little for critically ill or dying patients. Now it can do too much. Where to draw the line is the subject of a broad, heated debate throughout the country, a debate that becomes louder with each new medical miracle or impossible case.

  Lisa Belkin

  Country, Medicine, Miracle

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• We live at a time that is notable for the polemical nature of discussions about identity, consciousness, rationality, agency, memory, and feeling. 'New atheists' and reductive materialists conduct gladiatorial debates against defenders of faith and enemies of reductionism. Lots of heat is produced, but, alas, little light is shed. How marvelous it is, then, to see this fine new book by Lenn E. Goodman and Gregory Caramenico. Here is a learned, illuminating, and decidedly non-polemical treatment of the classic questions of soul, mind, and brain-an exemplary work of scholarship.

  Robert P. George

  Atheist, Memories, Book

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• Some people think I enjoy debate. I don't. I wish everyone agreed with me; it would save a lot of time.

  Bill Maher

  Thinking, People, Wish

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• I've never seen class warfare as nasty as it is today, as a result of tax debate.

  Bernard Goldberg

  Class, Warfare, Today

  "Bernie Goldberg Explains Why We Should Be Thanking Rich Americans". "The O'Reilly Factor", www.foxnews.com. December 13, 2010.

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• Debates are set up for nothing more than to tear down the candidates. It's pretty hard to be able to sit and lay out your ideas and your concepts with a one-minute response.

  Rick Perry

  Ideas, Tears, Able

  "Rick Perry Discusses His Flat Tax Plan, Immigration, Romney". "The O'Reilly Factor", www.foxnews.com. October 25, 2011.

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• Nothing ever gets settled in this town (Washington). It's not like running a company or even a university. It's a seething debating society, in which the debate never stops; in which people never give up, including me, and that's the atmosphere in which you administer.

  George P. Shultz

  Running, Giving Up, People

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• Debates must take place in an atmosphere of courtesy.

  John Allen Fraser

  Atmosphere, Courtesy

  John Allen Fraser (1993). “The House of Commons at Work”, Montréal : Éditions de la Chenelière

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• There is some debate in professional circles about whether the so-called “midlife crisis” exists.

  James Hollis

  Circles, Midlife, Crisis

  James Hollis (2005). “Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life: How to Finally, Really Grow Up”, p.29, Penguin

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